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Are You Designing Excellence Into Your Client's Experience?

Are you the “One?”

How do you know?

If you are sitting in a room with nine of your fellow professional peers, there is a good chance that only one of you is providing excellent service to your clients.

Are you the “One?”

Are you sure?

While only one of you is actually providing excellent service, when asked eight of you will report that you are. The others aren’t fibbing. The other seven of you are confidently assured of doing right by your clients, and are dead wrong!

At Least That’s What Your Clients Think

A recent study by the Bain Company, reported in the Harvard Management Update, revealed that 80% of the 362 companies surveyed believed they delivered superior service to their customers. When the customers of those same firms were surveyed, only 8% agreed.

Nine of 10 companies who confidently assert the high level of their customer’s satisfaction are completely misinformed. They are headed for trouble and have no idea. How can so many companies be so wrong?

Being so wrong is simply a matter of not asking the right people the right questions. Many companies get wrong-headed about their customer’s satisfaction because they rely on indirect metrics to measure service. For instance:

  • Profitability per customer does not measure service excellence.
  • Market share does not measure service excellence.
  • Repeat sales statistics do not measure service excellence.
  • Call center complaint ratios do not measure service excellence.
  • Post service call surveys do not measure service excellence.
  • Even asking customers about the level of their satisfaction does not measure service excellence.

And if you are not delivering what your customers need, spiffy financials can hide a cold, hard truth. Your customers may only be doing business with you because they just haven’t found a better offer . . . yet! What does the “one” know that the other seven do not?

Service Excellence is Found in the Client Experience

The findings in the Bain Study articulate this as “designing the right offers and experiences for the right customers.”

The Right Customers

No company can serve every customer. The design of a customer experience starts with identifying the right customers. There is an appropriate chemistry in the best client engagements.

You should be fulfilling your highest and best use for those clients who are in the most need of your talents and service, and who are most appreciative.

Once you have identified the right clients and the service you are right at providing, you design the client experience based on the unique needs of your market.

Designing the Experience

The customer experience is simply what the customer experiences when working with you, your company, and your service. In designing the experience, be mindful of why a client comes to you:

  • To meet a need.
  • To solve a problem.
  • To make his or her life easier in some way.
  • To feel good about the experience.
  • To be intrinsically rewarded for choosing to work with you, both now and later upon reflection.

Consider your own most pleasing buying experiences. You were grateful to find someone who could meet your needs. You thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The buying experience made you better at doing your job or allowed you to more thoroughly enjoy some aspect of your life. You were able to remove a previous source of worry from your immediate attention, clearing valuable mindspace. You continue to rave about the experience, frequently sharing your testimonial with others. Your needs were anticipated, perhaps even before you became aware of them.

You felt as if your vendor understood what it was like to stand in your shoes.

Becoming the “One”

Here are a few questions to answer to help you get started on designing excellence into your client’s experience:

  • What problem do you solve for clients?
  • Why is it a problem?
  • How does the problem interfere with their work?
  • How does the problem impact the quality of their life?
  • What possible organizational, political, financial, or pragmatic obstacles does your client experience in fully utilizing your service? How can you best help them overcome those obstacles?
  • How can you make it easiest for your clients to use your service?

Are you the “One?”

How can you be sure? Design an experience that meets the needs of your clients. When you can accurately evaluate your client’s experience and make the experience of working with you rewarding and worry-free, only then can you be sure you are the “One.”

Happy Client Retaining,

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© 2004-2007 Jeff Simon Consulting. All Rights Reserved. Wouldn't you love to peer into your client's head and know what they are thinking and feeling? Could you have better success at keeping and choosing your best clients if you could decode their behavior? Check out the Happy Clients Newsletter at: www.happyclientsnewsletter.com.

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